Students blitz backyard project

MOWERS, hedge trimmers and brush cutters had a tune-up at Warrnambool College before they are put to good use in the community.

MOWERS, hedge trimmers and brush cutters had a tune-up at Warrnambool College before they are put to good use in the community.

After some training from Bunnings staff, John Williams, 14, starts a mower as part of Warrnambool Clontarf Academy’s Backyard Blitz program.

Staff from Bunnings Warehouse gave students from the Warrnambool Clontarf Academy a lesson in equipment maintenance and safe use on Friday.

The students will now head out into the community as part of the Backyard Blitz program.

The Clontarf Academy aims to keep young indigenous boys in school, by providing support and activities and encourages behavioural change, develops positive attitudes and builds employment pathways.

Warrnambool academy director Mick Riddle said the Backyard Blitz program involved academy members tending to the yards of indigenous elders and other members of the community who needed assistance. Mr Riddle said the academy had been running for four years and it was the third year of the Backyard Blitz program.

He said Wesfarmers, owner of Bunnings, was a partner in the national Clontarf Foundation and as such the Warrnambool store had helped organise the program.

“They supplied us with some power tools and other equipment and the Rotary Club of East Warrnambool gave us a trailer,” he said.

“The Backyard Blitz program is a seasonal program and it’s about opening up the lines of communication between the elders and younger generations.”